The Big Short

Category: Books

Michael Lewis has cobbled together this collage of financial knowledge and the characters who understood what was happening before anyone, and before it was too late. It's also brilliant and informative. Even though I thought I had a grasp on what happened to cause the 2008 GFC, this book really clarified how wrong I was. I get it now.

The people involved in these events were the smartest guys who weren't allowed in the room. They bet on the downfall of society and won. It is bittersweet, but highly entertaining.

This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials member and not of Investimonials LLC

I really enjoyed this book. I learned more from this book than any other I have read over the past 20 years and found it to be thrilling and exciting and educational all together. Great book, definately recommend.

This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials member and not of Investimonials LLC

This is a very important book. There are several points, extensively documented and described, that you will not find in other sources. These are not necessarily highlighted in the book, but I find them worthy of emphasis.

I want to go gently on the objections, since I like the book so much. It is natural for an author to look for the main themes from his work. I happen not to agree, but you might. The author finds implications for Obama priorities and sees the root of the trouble in investment banks becoming public companies. I found myself shaking my head at each unconvincing point.

This should not in any way detract from the wonderful story, with rich characterization and authentic detail.

There is important information that you will not see anywhere else. If the author was more attuned to the current debate over economic policy and forecasting, he might have better appreciated the significance of the first point.

Any current discussion of economic forecasts or investment decisions begins with the question of whether someone was right about 2008. Lewis's work is illuminating on this subject.

This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials member and not of Investimonials LLC

I enjoyed this book a lot. Gives you great insight into how the stock market and world economy melted down in 2008. The author explains how the ridiculous mortgage lending practices created a housing bubble, and who saw the end coming. Very entertaining.

This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials member and not of Investimonials LLC

Michael Lewis's "The Big Short" tells a rather disturbing tale of some of the biggest profiteers of one of America's worst financial crisis, which we are likely still in the midst of. The amazing thing cleverly illustrated by Lewis, is that while most of the brightest minds in America woke up to our shocking decline once it was too late, a small handful of speculators not only called it correctly, some became fantastically wealthy. The question that nagged me throughout the book was how should I feel about people who just made a killing while most of us watched our retirements suffer alarming declines, and witnessed friends & family lose their jobs and houses?

Greg Lippmann is credited with being the first to expose the weakness in the market around 2006. He pitched the idea to hundreds of financial groups, but most seemed to invest in insurance policies to protect their exposure.

P105:

"A smaller number of people -more than 10, fewer than 20- made a straightforward bet against the entire multi-trillion dollar subprime mortgage market and, by extension, the global financial system. The catastrophe was foreseeable, yet only a handful noticed. Among them: Whitebox hedge fund, The Baupost Group hedge fund, Passport Capital hedge fund, Elm Ridge hedge fund, a gaggle of NY hedge funds, Elliott Associates, Cedar Hill Capital Partners, QVT Financial, and Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners. What most of these investors had in common was that they had heard, directly or indirectly, Greg Lippmann's argument."

Mr. Lewis is a fun and witty writer and his energy in The Big Short is very reminiscent of Liar's Poker, but I really found something morbid and unappealing about this subject. Reading about Paulson's $15 billion killing in 2007 had a different feel than say Soros in the `80's & `90's, but maybe now I know how the English & Indonesians felt? Our society is bred to believe that hard work and ingenuity are rewarded, but in this case there is a tangible human tragedy as a consequence of speculators earning a massive imbalance of wealth in relation to the rest of the population.

All of the speculators Mr. Lewis uses as examples technically did the right thing and chose wisely. Some were more sophisticated than others, but they all have one thing in common: they all made an obscene amount of money betting America would be brought down to its knees. I am also even more disgusted now with the rating agencies that were super-slick in stamping AAA ratings on what was absolute garbage in hindsight.

I found the book both fascinating and disturbing. I think it is now clear to me that financial speculation that doesn't promote sustainable growth needs to be addressed and properly dealt with, and that adequate steps have not been taken. Lewis definitely added a new layer to my awareness of the credit crisis, and covered some fresh ground beyond typical news. I recommend the book if you want to gain a deeper understanding of the sucker punch that just hit most of us.

This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials member and not of Investimonials LLC

I listened to the audio book instead of reading this, and it was well narrated, and easy to listen to. The content of the book itself was very interesting. I could remember what I was doing on some of the days that were explained in the book. Very educational to see how the machine failed, and how the brilliant (and lucky) ones took advantage of it.

This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials member and not of Investimonials LLC

Just read this on the beach this week, made the difficult financial products and their doom causing nature very understandable. Wish it had shown a little more of the sell side of the story as it focused mainly on three different funds and how they made a ton of money doing this big short. Still very entertaining read especially if youre curious how the financial collapse happened and how hedge funds were able to make a killing because of it. The post-mortem reflection in the last chapter shouldve been expanded on as that moral gray area is fascinating as well.

This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials member and not of Investimonials LLC